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GreenMouse Promotes Healthy Living in Silicon Valley at Community Event - September 29, 2013

San Jose, CA –– September 6, 2013 – GreenMouse, Inc. will bring to San Jose its first community healthy living fair, where attendees can visit over 45 local service, product, and food vendors dedicated to promoting healthy living for people and the environment. The fun-filled event will also showcase talented dancers, vocalists, and upcycling artists. “How The Health Are You?” takes place on Sunday, September 29, 2013, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at 1401 Parkmoor, San Jose, CA. Admission to the event is free.

“We are enthusiastic about this community building event. This is an opportunity for local companies to share their services and products, and demonstrate the benefits of healthy living for both people and the environment,” said Evelyn O’Donnell, GreenMouse, Inc. President and CEO.

GreenMouse, Inc. started as an e-waste recycling business committed to building communities by providing a convenient way to dispose of unwanted waste. The company has since expanded its services to include fundraising and producing healthy living events. This reflects their commitment to promote healthier, more efficient products and services that enhance lifestyles and creates a better future for us all. “How The Health Are You?”is a fun and educational family event with children’s attractions, demonstrations, and local vendors providing information on their products, services and resources. Larger companies, such PG&E, Peet’s Coffee and VTA are participating to represent their involvement with the community and the environment. Attendees may purchase healthy and tasty food from food trucks.

About “How the Health Are You?”

“How the Health Are You?”is a community event produced by GreenMouse, Inc. for the purpose of promoting healthy living for people and the environment. “How the Health Are You?” is interactive and centers around activities, presentations, food and entertainment. Local businesses and organizations provide information, services, products, and resources that are beneficial to healthy living. GreenMouse, Inc. also produces customized healthy living events for businesses throughout California.

About GreenMouse, Inc.

GreenMouse, Inc. was founded in 2005 with the purpose of creating jobs for disadvantaged young adults and to provide electronic waste recycling services and fundraising events to the community. GreenMouse trains and hires at-risk young adults and high school students. The company partners with the City of San Jose and its work2future program and Rebekah Children’s Services and its wraparound program to foster job development. For more information visit www.greenmouse.com.

GreenMouse Recycling Brings National Recycling Celebration to San Jose - November 12, 2012

San Jose, CA –– November, 12, 2012 – This November 15-17, 2012, GreenMouse Recycling will host San Jose Recycles, joining thousands of local organizers holding recycling events across the country to celebrate America Recycles Day, the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States.

In recognition of America Recycles Day, GreenMouse Recycling will host for the residents of San Jose and surrounding cities, a three-day recycle-athon with a goal to recycle 100,000 lbs. of electronic waste between November 15th and November 17th. Starbucks gift cards will be given to anyone recycling an item with a screen (laptops, monitors, televisions, cell phones). Other items, such as printers, fax machines, and other electronics will also be accepted.

“America Recycles Day helps bring awareness to the importance of recycling and how we can all do are share to help make our community a better place to live,” said Evelyn O’Donnell, GreenMouse, Inc. President and CEO. “We are happy to participate in this event along with others across the United States.”

The national recycling rate is currently at 34 percent. Recycling 75 percent of the nation’s waste would create nearly 1.5 million jobs by 2030, according to a report by the Tellus Institute with Sound Resource Management.

“We are very proud supporters of GreenMouse Recycling’s America Recycles Day event and commend their efforts to promote recycling in San Jose, CA. Recycling is the easiest thing we can all do to improve our community, conserve natural resources and create green jobs. Collectively, through events like these, we aim to make recycling bigger and better 365 days a year,” said Brenda Pulley, Senior Vice President of Recycling at Keep America Beautiful and national program manager for America Recycles Day.

For more information about recycling at GreenMouse Recycling, visit www.greenmouse.comor call (408) 648-4400.

About America Recycles DayAmerica Recycles DaySMis a national program of Keep America Beautiful, and is the only nationally recognized day and community-driven awareness event dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the U.S. Since its inception in 1997, communities across the country have participated in America Recycles Day on November 15 to educate, promote environmental citizenship, and encourage action. Learn more at AmericaRecyclesDay.org.

About Keep America Beautiful, Inc.Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. With a network of over 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations, Keep America Beautiful forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community's environment. To learn more, visit kab.org.

Some say the best way to stop a bullet is with a job, and there is a San Jose program that aims to do just that.

At 14, Elizabeth Campos, a former self-described gang banger, is now finding her way through a Green Cadre work program. She's now 21, and attending San Jose City College - a feat she attributes to innovative program that provides job training for low-income and at-risk youth and adults.

“It’s a second chance for me,” Campos said.

And she is just one of the success stories.

“The kids we have are typically kids out of school. Many don’t have a diploma, the kind of kid ripe for gang activity,” said Richard Martinez, the program director at Work2future's Green Cadre program.

The program is run with funds from the Federal Workforce Reinvestment Act, and helps roughly 300 teens and young adults per year. Work2future operates centers that serve San Jose, Campbell Morgan Hill, Los Altos Hills, Gilroy, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Monte Sereno and parts of Santa Clara County.

It’s the kind of program touted by Mayor Chuck Reed and Police Chief Chris Moore as solutions to the growing youth violence.

The Green Cadre program is also a component of the city’s effort, with an office right in the San Jose Office of Economic Development, training youth for green jobs.

That’s what helped Isaiah Garcia land a job at GreenMouse Recycling.

“It’s helped me out a lot,” Garcia said. “I got out of prison, got a bad start, was looking for a new start.”
Green Mouse has given five graduates of the Green Cadre program that new start.

The company partners with the city to provide jobs for the participants, and they don’t like to hear that they’re taking a risk hiring the youth with a shady past.

“We look at the future, not the past,” said Green Mouse president Evelyn O’Donnell. “I’m giving them a chance because it’s a chance for me to give back to my community.”

Old Electronics Help Los Altos High Cheerleaders Get to Nationals - March 11, 2012

The Los Altos High School cheer team is getting ready to compete for a national championship in Anaheim at the end of March. They’re practicing some new moves, perfecting their acrobatics and raising money to help with travel expenses.

They did a bake sale, of course. But the real money came from an e-waste drive — collecting old printers, microwaves, TVs, computers and cables collecting dust in neighbors’ garages. GreenMouse, a San Jose-based recycling company, breaks down the items and sells the scrap plastics, metals and other components. Half the proceeds go to the cheer team.

Last year, Los Altos High was one of GreenMouse’s most successful donors, raising $2,500 for the Associated Student Body in just one weekend. This year’s tally isn’t in yet, but organizers estimated that about 400 cars pulled through the donation drive.

San Jose E-Waste Upgraded to Artwork - November 25, 2011

By Susan DeFreitas, November 25th, 2011

It seems only fitting that the San Jose Museum of Art – a cultural institution situated in the heart of California‘s Silicon Valley – would pay an artistic tribute to the computer. Its latest exhibition, “Beta Space: Anna Sew Hoy,” does just that, with a little help from San Jose-based e-waste collector/recycler GreenMouse Recycling.

After commissioning the project and selecting artist Anna Sew Hoy, the museum approached GreenMouse’s owner Evelyn O’Donnell to provide a selection of collected e-waste among other “raw” materials, as GreenMouse already hosts a permanent display of obscure and early computer technologies that illustrates the history of obsolesce in both industrial design and computer technologies. In conceiving this new work, Sew Hoy was asked to visit and respond to San Jose and Silicon Valley’s technology culture; she said that it made sense to look at e-waste as a reflection of those Silicon Valley startups that first boom and then bust.

Set to run until February 2012 as part of the museum’s ongoing experimental gallery, “Beta Space” focuses on new, interdisciplinary and creative uses of nontraditional media and materials by internationally acclaimed artists from the Bay Area Glass Institute, who – under Sew Hoy’s direction – created a new group of sculptural works in large, custom-blown glass vessels containing the “electronic detritus” provided by GreenMouse Recycling.

O’Donnell reports that she was happy to help the artists in creating this work, as the company’s involvement in efforts such as this – as well as the “mini-museum” in GreenMouse’s office and their fundraising work with local organizations and charities – is part of how the company helps to distinguish itself from more industrial e-waste recyclers.

San Jose Museum Turns E-Waste Into Art - October 17, 2011

New life and a different perspective are being given to e-waste at the San Jose Museum of Art.

Artist Anna Sew Hoy, San Jose, Calif.-based GreenMouse Recycling and the Bay Area Glass Institute (BAGI) have collaborated to create a new group of sculptural works entitled “Nothing All Day” that showcases discarded electronics.

Sew Hoy’s work is the second installation in the museum’s experimental exhibition gallery “Beta Space,” which premiered in late August and runs through Feb. 26.

“There are a lot of different things going on in the work,” Sew Hoy said. “I think what people will see is how much stuff we throw away; how quickly things become obsolete.”

The installation incorporates custom-blown glass pieces made by BAGI artists and recycled e-waste such as computer keyboards, mice and DSL cords.

Sew Hoy also wanted to highlight “Nothing All Day.” She worked with BAGI to create large glass vessels to contain the e-waste.

Evelyn O’Donnell, founder and owner of GreenMouse, jumped at the opportunity to sponsor the exhibit.

“My heart is really in the arts,” said O’Donnell, who has a background in costume and interior design. “Even though I consider myself a junk collector, I like to think of putting dignity to the stuff that we find and recycle. My dream has always been to mix art with e-waste.”

Founded in 2004, GreenMouse uses recycling to help support community jobs programs and fundraising for nonprofit arts and theatre groups. The company offers free e-waste recycling, both collection and drop-off, to businesses and residential consumers in the Bay Area.

“I think she must’ve sent about 400 pounds of white keyboards and mouses to my house,” Sew Hoy said. “I was really inspired by Evelyn; just the fact that she started this business herself, the way she interacts with the things she recycles, the e-waste itself and the way she collects pieces that are of interest to her.”

GreenMouse already hosts a permanent display of obscure and early computer technologies at its San Jose location, O’Donnell said.

“When they called,” O’Donnell said, “it was just good timing. Their dream met my dream.”

GreenMouse Offers Responsible Recycling - May 18, 2011

Company Profile: GreenMouse Recycling

“Recycling is more than just dropping it off and having it magically disappear,” said Evelyn O’Donnell, CEO of GreenMouse Recycling in San Jose, Calif. California recycling legislation makes it simple for consumers to recycle potentially hazardous electronic materials, such as older CRT computer monitors, with programs that offer incentives to collectors and recyclers. But making it easy for consumers doesn’t mean the collector’s job is done for them.

“While consumers are able to drop off components without cost to them, the e-waste must still be recycled responsibly – there are rules and regulations, many categories of red tape and bureaucracy. The general public is unaware of our challenges in making a small electronics recycling company run efficiently. I know I once was.”

Prior to opening the e-waste collection business in 2004, O’Donnell had been involved in many charitable organizations in the Silicon Valley and was looking to develop a second career in a purpose-driven enterprise. “I’d worked in high-tech marketing and sales, and I’d never really thought about where e-waste went,” she said. Like so many people, she just figured it went ‘away’ and she no longer had to be concerned with it. “I had no idea where all this stuff went and when I found out, it opened up whole new world for me.”

GreenMouse Recycling, based in near Highway 101 in San Jose, collects discarded electronics for recycling on-site, at businesses and through special collection events to aid non-profits. Today her challenges include educating the general public that there is no magic way to dispose of discarded electronics.

“Our responsibility continues even after the e-waste goes to the recycler. We ensure government rules and regulations are adhered to long after the materials have left our docks,” O’Donnell said

Her other communications challenges focus on the public’s widely held misperception that broken computers being processed by children in developing nations such as India and China. “While that may happen in some small degree, California rules in particular require us as collectors to assure e-waste is recycled in a legal manner and is monitored by third party organizations.

“Everything goes to China eventually,” she said, “but only long after the materials have been processed into a near raw state.”

In founding the company, O’Donnell’s vision was to create a purpose-driven company that would also provide sustainable employment and training to disadvantaged adults. The company now has 10 employees, and is at a comfortable level, she said.

Being small has certain advantages, she related. She knows many of the contracts and needs of her clients herself, and fears she will lose that one-on-one touch as her business grows. As she prepares to expand out of her 4,500 feet of high-roof industrial space, she is looking for ways to retain the personal, hands-on experience the customer receives from her firm. Among her plans are a learning center and e-waste museum, not a least of which includes a near complete collection of Apple computers from the early 1980s, most of which are still functional. Her idea is to make recycling friendly, memorable and approachable; something she feels is unavailable through larger, more corporate alternatives.

“We’re starting with the children, for example,” she said. “We hope to instill life-long habits of sustainable environmental stewardship.

In addition, she says GreenMouse has another strategic competitive advantage. “When people ask if we can do something, we say, “Yes” first, and then figure out how to make it happen.”

Good Riddance! Electronics Safely Recycled by Los Altos High - March 20, 2011

That's the message the Associated Student Body at Los Altos High School tried to spread when they hosted an e-waste environmental service project and invited people to recycle their electronics earlier this month.

"It's a good service for the community, because they don't always know where to take this stuff," said Principal Wynne Satterwhite. "It think it's been a huge success."

In a six-hour period on March 5, nearly 500 cars pulled into the school's driveway to drop off everything from irons and microwaves to televisions and computer monitors, copy machines and hard drives. At least two truckloads of junk was hauled away by Green Mouse, an e-waste recycling company from San Jose.

According to Sybil Cramer, the green projects adviser to the student body, LAHS is one of three high schools in Santa Clara County to have received a "green" certificate after the school completed a 16-page checklist.

"In every category, LAHS achieved," said Cramer.

The members of the student body's green team promoted the event heavily before that Saturday, and their efforts paid off, as they averaged 83.3 cars per hour.

"It's a great service," said Doug Limbach, the parent of a freshman at LAHS, from Los Altos. "It's a great service they are providing, because you save up the electronics to dispose of safely here."

But after hours of people dropping of their electronics, the event took on another dimension. It became more like a mausoleum of not only technology's past, but of Silicon Valley's too. There was everything from old tube televisions still mounted on wood consoles to flat screens, hard drives to laptops. The region of innovation, which spawned the need for many of these electronics, now has also created a lot of this junk.

"It's amazing what people would come and drop off," said Satterwhite. "We've become a real throw-a-way society, but luckily [Green Mouse] will recycle everything."

Do you have electronics sitting around your house? What old things do you want to rid yourself of? Tell us in the comments.

Unplug, Drive In, Drop Off - March 02, 2011

The Los Altos High School Associated Student Body with the help of Green Mouse Recycling (GMR) is sponsoring an Electronic Waste Collection Drive, Saturday, March 5 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Los Altos High School, 201 Almond Ave. Los Altos.

Community members are encouraged to bring their old, broken down or unused electronic appliances to the e-waste drive so that they can be properly recycled according to California state regulations, a representative from the school's ASB said. Items being collected include, but are not limited to: computers, laptops, televisions, DVD players, speakers, cables and microwaves.

The collection is a drive-in and drop-off event. The staff from GMR will handle all the unloading and sorting. GMR is a state-approved electronic waste recycling service for schools.

GMR can recycle items too large to bring to the collection drive. If the appliance weighs over 200 pounds, people in the Los Altos area can contact GMR and they will pick it up.